Near the beginning of “21 Jump Street,” a police captain played by Nick Offerman assigns two deadbeat new cops, played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, to a program that might be familiar to fans of the 1980s television show this film is based upon. The Jump Street program – in which baby-faced police officers are assigned to undercover jobs in high schools – has been revived, he says, because the higher-ups have gotten lazy and seen fit to recycle the same old crap and hope that people don’t notice. Fortunately, the very existence of a “21 Jump Street” film has paid off – and how. Foul, hysterically funny and surprisingly sweet, this is the funniest movie of the year so far, and it might be something along the lines of an instant buddy-cop classic.

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller make their live-action feature debut with “21 Jump Street,” but if you’ve seen their previous film, 2009’s animated “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” you might recall that film’s relish in wacky asides, clever jokes and a particular detail toward character development. That tendency continues here.

The film starts with a brief scene following high school classmates Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum), Schmidt a dorky young man whose fashion sense appears to have unfortunately been modeled after Eminem and Jenko the standard dumb jock who takes particular relish in bullying him, though he seems to be too dumb to mean it maliciously. It’s just what the cool kids do. Flash-forward to the police training academy and the two become unlikely friends, if only because Schmidt seems to actually have a relish for test-taking and Jenko is the man of action. Unfortunately, their first bust together as uniformed bike cops goes awry, and so they’re sent to a Korean church at 21 Jump Street, where the particularly angry captain (Ice Cube) assigns them to infiltrate a high school where a new designer drug has become all the rage. Their mission: find the dealers, find the supplier and stop it.

This is easier said than done; an error causes the two to switch undercover identities, as Schmidt is incorrectly labeled the popular athlete and Jenko the AP class-taking smart one. The two start relishing their role reversals a little too much, losing sight of the case that brought them there in the first place.

As you’d expect, chaos ensues when the two attempt any actual police work. It’s a testament to the directors, some sharp writing by Michael Bacall and the film’s cast that the movie continually subverts our expectations. Jokes can be blatantly set up early and paid off later in the film and it still feels fresh and funny. And packing the movie with talented performers, like Brie Larson as a love interest for Hill’s character and Dave Franco (brother of James) as a P.C. popular kid/drug dealer, doesn’t hurt either. There’s even room for an uncredited role from a highly popular movie star, whose identity probably won’t be hard to figure out if you’re at all familiar with the television series “21 Jump Street.”

But the film lives and dies on the shoulders of its two leads, and while you’d expect Jonah Hill to be funny – he usually is – particular praise has to be heaped upon Channing Tatum. Too long typecast as an action star or romantic lead in syrupy love stories, Tatum is an outstanding comic actor here, tweaking his own screen persona while being game for whatever gags the screenplay might throw his way. He’s phenomenal. The movie just wouldn’t work as well as it does if you didn’t buy the chemistry and friendship between Schmidt and Jenko, and Hill and Tatum have terrific comic timing at all points in the film.

I won’t deny that much of “21 Jump Street” is juvenile, but it’s in the best possible way. There are lines and jokes in this movie that you just won’t hear, due to laughing at the lines and jokes just before them. Folks, making a movie out of “21 Jump Street” probably didn’t strike anyone as a great idea, but the fact that Lord and Miller have made the best comedy of the young 2012 – and a legitimately great comedy – out of the material is damn near a miracle.

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Near the beginning of “21 Jump Street,” a police captain played by Nick Offerman assigns two deadbeat new cops, played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, to a program that might be familiar to fans of the 1980s television show this film is based upon. The Jump Street program – in which baby-faced police officers are assigned to undercover jobs in high schools – has been revived, he says, because the higher-ups have gotten lazy and seen fit to recycle the same old crap and hope that people don’t notice. Fortunately, the very existence of a “21 Jump Street” film has paid off – and how. Foul, hysterically funny and surprisingly sweet, this is the funniest movie of the year so far, and it might be something along the lines of an instant buddy-cop classic.

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller make their live-action feature debut with “21 Jump Street,” but if you’ve seen their previous film, 2009’s animated “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” you might recall that film’s relish in wacky asides, clever jokes and a particular detail toward character development. That tendency continues here.

The film starts with a brief scene following high school classmates Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum), Schmidt a dorky young man whose fashion sense appears to have unfortunately been modeled after Eminem and Jenko the standard dumb jock who takes particular relish in bullying him, though he seems to be too dumb to mean it maliciously. It’s just what the cool kids do. Flash-forward to the police training academy and the two become unlikely friends, if only because Schmidt seems to actually have a relish for test-taking and Jenko is the man of action. Unfortunately, their first bust together as uniformed bike cops goes awry, and so they’re sent to a Korean church at 21 Jump Street, where the particularly angry captain (Ice Cube) assigns them to infiltrate a high school where a new designer drug has become all the rage. Their mission: find the dealers, find the supplier and stop it.

This is easier said than done; an error causes the two to switch undercover identities, as Schmidt is incorrectly labeled the popular athlete and Jenko the AP class-taking smart one. The two start relishing their role reversals a little too much, losing sight of the case that brought them there in the first place.

As you’d expect, chaos ensues when the two attempt any actual police work. It’s a testament to the directors, some sharp writing by Michael Bacall and the film’s cast that the movie continually subverts our expectations. Jokes can be blatantly set up early and paid off later in the film and it still feels fresh and funny. And packing the movie with talented performers, like Brie Larson as a love interest for Hill’s character and Dave Franco (brother of James) as a P.C. popular kid/drug dealer, doesn’t hurt either. There’s even room for an uncredited role from a highly popular movie star, whose identity probably won’t be hard to figure out if you’re at all familiar with the television series “21 Jump Street.”

But the film lives and dies on the shoulders of its two leads, and while you’d expect Jonah Hill to be funny – he usually is – particular praise has to be heaped upon Channing Tatum. Too long typecast as an action star or romantic lead in syrupy love stories, Tatum is an outstanding comic actor here, tweaking his own screen persona while being game for whatever gags the screenplay might throw his way. He’s phenomenal. The movie just wouldn’t work as well as it does if you didn’t buy the chemistry and friendship between Schmidt and Jenko, and Hill and Tatum have terrific comic timing at all points in the film.

I won’t deny that much of “21 Jump Street” is juvenile, but it’s in the best possible way. There are lines and jokes in this movie that you just won’t hear, due to laughing at the lines and jokes just before them. Folks, making a movie out of “21 Jump Street” probably didn’t strike anyone as a great idea, but the fact that Lord and Miller have made the best comedy of the young 2012 – and a legitimately great comedy – out of the material is damn near a miracle.